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This Female Game Developer Was Harassed So Severely On Twitter She Had To Leave Her Home

Lisa Eadicicco   

This Female Game Developer Was Harassed So Severely On Twitter She Had To Leave Her Home
Tech2 min read

BriannaWu

Twitter

Brianna Wu's Twitter photo

Game developer Brianna Wu and her husband left their home last night after receiving death threats via Twitter, Wu tweeted on Saturday.

The couple called the police after Wu recieved violent and graphic death threats on Twitter.

Based on tweets from Wu, which The Verge, BoingBoing, Re/code, and other tech blogs spotted on Saturday, the harassment seems to be in response to a meme Wu created poking fun at the "gamergate" movement.

"Gamergate" is an online movement concerned with ethics in games journalism and protecting the "gamer" identity, as Gawker explains it.

It all started as one targeted attack on female game developer Zoe Quinn in August. Check out Gawker's post for a full explainer of the "gamergate" movement, how it started, and why people are bothered by it.

Many of the threats and explicit comments targeted Wu for being a feminist and showing her support for women in gaming.

Here's what Wu tweeted on Saturday:

After Wu, head of development at games studio Giant Spacekat, created memes mocking "gamergate," users of the image board and forum 8chan began making memes that threatened Wu, according to blog We Hunted The Mammoth. Wu tweeted out the blog post and cited it as an accurate description of her experience.

But the more gruesome threats came from Twitter account Death To Brianna, which pushed Wu to call the police and has since been suspended. The Twitter account also posted Wu's home address publicly.

Here are some of the threats Wu received. (Note: The tweets below contain violent and explicit content. We've censored the most explicit parts, but they're still graphic.)

TwitterThreatsCensored

Twitter/ Brianna Wu

Wu isn't the first woman to experience such treatment after speaking out about women in the gaming industry. Video game critic and feminist Anita Sarkeesian also left her home after receiving similar threats in August.

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